Pictured: Brenda Howard (center), Vice President of Texas Heritage National Bank, with THNB Scholars Stephanie Hernandez (left) and Lity Flores (right).
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
For the tenth straight year, Texas Heritage National Bank, originally the National Bank for Daingerfield, has provided signal Presidential Scholarships for top students of the NTCC Honors program.
And this year, for the first time, it has provided not just one, but two such scholarships.
This fall, Stephanie Hernandez has become the winner of the more traditional and lucrative award. As NTCC’s Texas Heritage National Bank Scholar for 2025-2026, Hernandez will follow a line that began with Emmalea (Shaw) Cunningham, now a doctor of physical therapy, and a patron on Honors Northeast, and has extended through some of the more successful alumni of NTCC in recent years. Last year’s winner, for example, Vanessajane Bayna, was one of only four community college sophomores in the nation last spring to win a Udall Scholarship for environmental studies.
Litzy Flores, on the other hand, was the 2025 valedictorian of Daingerfield High School. She is the premiere winner of the Sid Greer Scholarship, named in honor for the long-term NTCC and THNB trustee. Sid and his wife Eva, were also owners of a historic Morris County farm, famous for its orchards, berries, fishing and destination cabins.
Texas Heritage National Bank traces a lineage back to 1889 and has expanded vigorously in recent years. The bank now has a presence in seven locations—Austin, Dallas, Daingerfield, Gilmer, Omaha, Ore City, and Sulphur Springs.
Before becoming the 2025-26 THNB Scholar, Hernandez broke an all-time NTCC record for winning the most scholarly cash awards in one semester. Last spring, she won a $400 first-in-state Caldwell, a $300 second-place McGraw Hill, a $100 Britt of the Great Plains Honors Council, and a $50 second-place in the Red River Symposium—all for her work on Tejano murals. She also won a $100 first-place at the intervarsity Red River Symposium in the oral presentation division, for her work in parasitology.
NTCC Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes “Texas Heritage National Bank has punctuated our honors experience at NTCC with acts of exemplary encouragement. The bank’s generosity has been a treasure for our whole effort, inspiriting a merit dynamic, and impelling exceptional scholars like Hernandez and Flores to maintain a tradition of excellence.”
